Godehard Giese, known as a TV and theater producer, makes his scriptwriting and directorial debut in DIE GESCHICHTE VOM ASTRONAUTEN. His "multicoloured, dazzling fantasy" (TIP Berlin) won the prize for best production at the Achtung Berlin Film Festival.
Charlotte, a successful writer, has retreated to a Mediterranean island to write her new novel. She often takes inspiration from other people's lives. Especially her landlady Renate, who has been waiting for years for her husband to return, seems to be a wonderful role model for Charlotte's main character, the wife of an astronaut. But the deeper Charlotte is immersed in Renate's life, the more she is confronted with her own painful past.
"TIE GESCHICHTE VOM ASTRONAUTEN is a film worth watching and listening to: a film of subtle images and sounds of impressive atmospheric power. The sea, the beach and the coastal environment have a mysterious aura in Eric Ferranti's cinematography. Some passages are small photographic masterpieces that irritate in a positive sense." (spielfilm. com)

In Jules Herrmann's psychodrama LIEBMANN, the German teacher Antek Liebmann escapes from his past in Germany and moves to Northern France. At the Berlinale, LIEBMANN was nominated for the Teddy and at the European Film Awards for the Fipresci Prize. LIEBMANN also played in the official competition at the Achtung Berlin and the Max Ophüls Preis film festivals.
Arriving in the small French village, Antek learns from his landlord Antoine that a murderer is living in the surrounding woods. Following a dark presentiment, Antek wanders into the undergrowth on one of his walks, where he makes a dangerous discovery. Neither Antoine nor Antek's attractive neighbour Geneviève suspect that he has left behind a terrible secret in his homeland. But before he can start a new life, he must first face the spirits of his past. wie es Sébastien und Geneviève erfahren müssen. (...) Jules Herrmann hat ein schimmerndes Debüt geschaffen und eine ganz eigene Weise filmischen Erzählens." (zeit.de)

Berlinale; Achtung Berlin New Berlin Film Award; Max Ophüls Preis; European Film Awards; Fünf Seen Film Festival; Milan International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival; Cologne International Women’s Film Festival; Toronto Inside Out LGBT Film Festival; Mardi Gras Film Festival; Cologne International Women’s Film Festival

The documentary ALS WIR DIE ZUKUNFT WAREN (When We Were The Future)recounts in seven episodes by seven directors personal stories about life growing up in East Germany before the Fall of the Wall.
The filmmakers Gabriele Denkecke, Lars Barthel, Peter Kahane, Thomas Knauf, Ralf Marschalleck, Hannes Schönemann and Andreas Voigt remember their childhood and youth in the GDR in the 1950s and 1960s. They portray themselves as curious, vulnerable children and young people who also want to be cool(although the word had not yet existed for them at that time). They grew up in families who either accepted the regime or resisted it. Depending on their family background, they might have beeen expected to help build a 'new, better Germany'. They graduated from the Babelsberg Film Academy, worked together in the DEFA studios; they have become colleagues and friends, some of them to this day. Now, nearing 60, they go back to their childhood haunts, gather family photos and films, and tell their stories. Seven very personal episodes about hope and doubt, about winning and failing.
ALS WIR DIE ZUKUNFT WAREN is nominated for the 2017 Grimme Prize, and has shown at numerous prestigious festivals, including the International Hofer Film Festival, the Max Ophüls Prize and Achtung Berlin.

In his Teddy Award winning relationship drama TOMCAT, Austrian director Klaus Händl poses a question: what happens to a relationship when the love idyll is destroyed from within? Can a couple recover a relationship once it has been so deeply wounded?
"Writer/director Händl Klaus and his team bring masterful editing, beautiful cinematography, and great performances by the ensemble cast to create an enthralling atmosphere. The result is an engrossing yet confusing film that makes you think, and that holds the you in its grip long after leaving the cinema." (Berlinale/ Teddy Award - Jury)
Andreas and Stefan live together with their beloved tomcat Moses in a beautiful house with a garden in the vineyards near Vienna. Both of them work for the same orchestra and lead a life full of passion, good food and friends until a surprising outburst of violence by Stefan suddenly changes everything. Distrust and alienation result as they attempt to find their way back to their loving relationship. TOMCAT also won the Jury Prize at the Hong Kong Film Festival, and an award at the Tel Aviv LGBT.

The Italian satirist and TV presenter Pierfrancesco Diliberto, know as Pif, surprises with this autobiographically inspired directorial debut. Mixing absurd comedy with tragically serious themes, the result is an unusual monument to the victims of organized crime. "THE MAFIA KILLS ONLY IN SUMMER (La mafia uccide solo d'estate) is one of the most successful and intelligent films produced by Italian cinema in recent years." (Il Giornale)
Sicily in the early 1980s is under the siege of a brutal mafia war. Organized crime, corrupt politics and the lives of ordinary people are closely interwoven. The film follows character Arturo over 20 years. From a childhood full of naive explanations for the many dead ("the Mafia is only in Calabria and Campania"), to his adoration of the unattainable Flora, to his career as a young journalist.
Supported by archival material and reenacted scenes, Pierfrancesco Diliberto creates a humorous chronology of horror illustrating the absurdity of life with the Mafia.
Pierfrancesco Dilibertos won with THE MAFIA KILLS ONLY IN SUMMER the European Film Award for Best Comedy.

Premiered at the Filmfestival Max-Ophüls-Preis FAMILIAR CIRCLES by filmmaker and DFFB graduate Jonas Rothlaender investigates an deep family conflict that affects his life as a third generation family memeber.
When will it stop? The filmmaker seeks out the conflict origins and lands at doorstep of his grandfather. During his lifetime, 90-year-old Günther squandered several million dollarss, including the entire fortune of his then wife Anne, on failed stock market speculations.Now, Günther is obsessed with settling his debts (and assuaging his guilty conscious) by scoring one last big deal.
Director Jonas Rothlaender digs deep at the roots of this seemingly hopeless family conflict. It originated with his grandparents, was passed on to his mother and eventually took root in his own life. The question becomes: is reconciliation between generations even possible?
"FAMILIAR CIRCILES is introspective without resorting to self therapy. It addresses the the distress but doesn't resort to blaming... The film has created a common language, and when the film stops, the conversations starts." (Critic.de)

The DFFB production FADO and first feature by Jonas Rothlaender (FAMILIAR CIRCLES), debuted at the film festivals Achtung Berlin, Max-Ophüls-Preis and IFF Rotterdam. Young Berlin doctor Fabian tries to win back his architect girlfriend Doro in Lisbon but is thwarted by his unrelenting jealousy. "Jonas Rothlaender's FADO is an atmospheric study that sees sexual jealousy turn into a claustrophobic melodrama." (Perlentaucher)
After a first night back together, Fabian’s old fears and anxieties start to overwhelm him. Fabian tries but fails to suppress his jealousy over Doro’s close friendship with her charismatic colleague, Francisco.
During a trip to the Atlantic coast the tension between Doro and Fabian escalates, and the couple is driven apart and confronted with the depth of his fears, Fabian spirals into a pyschotic nightmare.

"Rarely has German cinema of the past few years been as innovative, emotional, colorful and brutal as Christian Morismüller's new film, ICONS OF LIGHT, which premiered at the Filmfestival Max-Ophüls-Preis." (Max Fischer / We are Movies)
Katharina (Theresa Scholze) and Steffen (Max Riemelt) seem like the quintessential successful Berlin couple – they have well-paying jobs, a loving relationship and a spectacular apartment. One night, fed up with the predictability of their lives, they decide on a radical change: They’re going to extinguish all traces of their existence and start over.
They set up a camera to film the process, hoping others will follow their lead. They begin to destroy their belongings, empty their bank accounts and erase the digital remnants of their lives. Even from their best friends, the couple Robert and Paul, they intend to hide their plan to disappear forever. As everything around them breaks into pieces, their film takes a turn of its own – and their secretive revolution becomes a fight for their love.

Feature debut BABAI by writer-director Visnar Morina is a coming of age tale set against the backdrop of conflict-scarred Kosovo. The story of ten-year-old Nori plays out in early 1990s Kosovo, in Germany, and on the road between the two countries.
His father Gezim dominates his entire world. Gezim, however, is a weak-willed outsider who uses his son to earn a meager living selling cigarettes on the street. He never wants to talk about why his wife left him, and one day he himself decides to abandon the boy and his former life for a naïve vision of Germany as a change for the better. Desperate Nori’s secret journey to find his father occupies a large part of the story during which he gets knocked down hard but learns to snap back with resilience. In the end he is more grown-up than Gezim ever was, but this statement suggests a bitterness over a childhood lost. This feature debut from a talented Kosovan filmmaker is rendered with exceptional intensity and a flair for portraying the emotional complexities of the child’s situation.

THE CUCKOO AND THE DONKEY, the sophomore outing by upcoming German director Andreas Arnstedt, is a black comedy set in the TV business. “Arnstedt uses every opportunity to skewer clichés about (German) cinema.”(epd Film)
Conrad Weitzmann is not a very successful author. He is, however, convinced that the world needs to hear about the love story of his parents. 10 years ago, following the death of his mother, he began writing the screenplay ‘The Orange Grove’. And indeed, the material seemed to inspire the television editor Stuckradt Halmer. But after five years of mail traffic and countless changes, Conrad is forced to accept that he hasn’t progressed a single step - and must now resort to drastic action. He makes a momentous decision: Without further ado, Weitzmann, together with his father Ephraim, kidnaps the television man and holds him captive in their basement until he agrees to help finish the script. But it appears that Conrad’s hostage has never even heard about the screenplay.

Based on a true story, DESIRE WILL SET YOU FREE, directed by and starring Yony Leyser (WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS - A MAN WITHIN) is a feature-length doc-fiction hybrid that portrays the ghosts of queer past, present and future in contemporary Berlin. Filmed entirely in Berlin.
Ezra (Leyser), an American writer of Palestinian and Israeli parentage living in Berlin, spends his days clubbing, taking drugs, having pseudo-philosophical conversations and wanting to be more punk, whilst wishing he wrote more. In search of his next excitement fix, he ends up in one of Berlin’s famous gay hustler bars. There Ezra meets Sasha (Tim-Fabian Hoffmann), a Russian immigrant working as an escort. Ezra pulls Sasha on a journey through Berlin’s underground and queer scenes. He discovers remnants of WWII, The Weimar Republic, Bowie and the present day party kids. Much like taking a drug itself, the line between reality and desire is blurred in the land of excess. Featuring cameos by ‘Godmother of Punk’ Nina Hagen as Oracle, cult musician and performance artist Peaches, along with Rosa Von Praunheim, Rummelsnuff, Blood Orange, and Einstürzende Neubauten and Blixa Bargeld (formerly of Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds).

In the 1970s, Peter Brückner became an iconic figure of the German New Left and was the first university professor to lose tenure for political reasons. Thirty years after his death, his son begins a search for traces of the past.
FROM THE SIDELINE tells the story of Peter’s life, from the end of the Weimar Republic to the "German Autumn", the era of German leftist terrorism in the 70s. It is the story of a family caught up in political currents. A very personal, sometimes fragmentary portrait of Peter Brückner emerges from encounters with companions and family members, photos, letters and video footage.

In her debut film, the enigmatic coming of age drama SPIDERWEBHOUSE, young director Mara Eibl-Eibesfeldt unites unknown young talent with star German actors like Sylvie Testud. Runner-up winner of the 2015-2016 Youth 4 German Cinema Award, presided by a special jury of young people from across the US, Canada, and Mexico.
Jonas is already head of the family at just 12 years of age. He has been helping his two younger siblings and supporting his mother, Sabine, since his father left. Sabine is very loving towards her children but she often loses her patience and disappears into her room for the day. Mysterious demons drive her to spend a weekend away to relax in the "sunny valley". But the weekend grows into weeks in which the three children hear nothing from their mother. Food and money have long since run out, the house has become more and more like a haunted castle: a spiderweb house. Jonas tries his best to maintain the appearance of an intact family. On the hunt for something to eat, he meets a young man, Felix Count of Gütersloh, who speaks in rhymes and declares himself to be not quite right in the head. Rather like a guardian angel, he takes Jonas under his wing and shows him how to get by in a world without adults. The film is less a social drama than a modern-day fairy tale shot in black and white. The audience is immersed in the eerily beautiful world of the children which unfolds its own particular magic.

Berlinale; Seoul International Youth Film Festival; Fünf Seen Film Festival; ZLÍN FILM FESTIVALInternational Film Festival for Children and Youth; Shanghai International Film Festival; Melbourne International Film Festival; Espoo Ciné International Film Festival Montreal World Film Festival; Cambridge Film Festival

Comedy-drama ALKY ALKY by German Mumblecore wunderkind Axel Ranisch is an inventive take on the lighter and darker sides of alcoholism.
Rotund, middle-aged architect Tobias (Heiko Pinkowski) is involved in a unique domestic arrangement with slightly younger doppelganger DeBottle, aka Flasche (Peter Trabner), who is cheerfully tolerate Tobias' wife Anika (Christina Grobe) and their three kids (played by Pinkowski’s actual offspring). Even when he ought to be tending the marital bed, Tobias is usually lured out for yet another night’s carousing with DeBottle.
When a DUI incident puts the children in peril Anika is not amused. Nor is Tobias’ business partner Thomas (Thorsten Merten), who’s seen the demon alcohol ruin one deal too many. Our hero vows he can and will stop drinking now - but DeBottle isn't ready just yet to give up the finer things in life…

Magdalena is struggling to cope with a major crisis in her life: some time ago her daughter Sara committed suicide. Magdalena finds herself consumed by a grief she cannot overcome.
Although the event has shattered her world, she nonetheless manages to ‘function’ smoothly on a daily basis – whether this involves trying to sell Sara’s dog Truls, picking up her second daughter’s son from his piano lesson, eating with the family of an evening, attending a session with a spiritualist or going to a bar. These are all things she would have done anyway, and a strict routine helps prevent her pain from rising to the surface. Only when Sara’s former boyfriend visits does she begin to see a path through all her denial, speechlessness and feelings of guilt. Swedish actor Gunilla Röör’s impalpable yet robustly tangible interpretation of the role describes the void that has opened up as a result of the daughter’s death, but also allows the repressed pain to shine through, oscillating as it does between fragility and defiace, despondence and the strength of resolve. (Berlinale)

PRAUNHEIM MEMOIRES pays tribute to 1950s West Germany for better and for worse and how it shaped the nascent artist. The creation backstory of one of Germany's most significant filmmakers and social activists.
Rosa von Praunheim's (né Holger Mischwitzky) Frankfurt roots are revealed by his name, which he took after the Main metropolis district he grew up in.

A German film by Julia von Heinz, NOTHING ELSE MATTERS premiered at the Berlinale.
Carla left home with high hopes. Lucie works for Rico in the construction business. The two women meet at a building site and become friends. Carla tells Lucie of her dream of going to Lyon. She’s saving every cent she has. But just before she is about to embark on her journey she discovers that she is pregnant. All at once her dreams of a new life in Lyon recede into the far distance.
It’s too late to have an abortion and there’s no way that Carla can go to a doctor because she’s afraid that her father will find out about her pregnancy since she’s still insured through his health care card. Lucie couldn’t be more pleased that Carla has had to postpone her move. She and Carla have become far too close for Lucie to simply let her go. For this reason, Lucie suggests a deal to her girlfriend: have the baby under my name and I’ll take on the child. Carla agrees to the plan and the two girls go into hiding. But after the birth Carla can’t bring herself to leave her baby behind and it’s not long before both ‘mothers’ discover that they’re in way above their heads...

Tough Love (German: Härte) is a German drama film directed by Rosa von Praunheim and starring Hanno Koffler. The film tells the story of Andreas Marquardt who was sexually abused by his mother as a boy, became a karate champion and later a pimp.
It screened at the Panorama section of the 65th Berlin International Film Festival where it won a Panoroma Audience Award.
When karate champ Andreas Marquardt thinks about himself he feels nothing but bitterness. When he was two years old, his father poured water over him and put him outside on the balcony in sub-zero temperatures.
Another time he crushed his hand. When he was six, his mother began to seduce him: ‘Your prick belongs to me, my little friend.’ Later, Andreas became a pimp and earned millions – until he wound up behind bars. Lovely Marion was the only one who stood by him and gave him the courage to go on ...Interspersing interviews with dramatized scenes from Andreas Marquardt’s biography, Rosa von Praunheim describes a life that veers from fear and humiliation to contempt, hatred and brutality. Filmed in stylised sets replete with photographic wallpaper that deep wounds caused by domestic violence and one man’s desperate attempts at resistance.

Isabell Šuba has made it – or so she thinks! One of her short films is screening at the world’s largest film festival. But instead of red carpet and caviar, her chauvinistic producer and an overbooked hotel await her in Cannes.
In a partnership of convenience, the two are trying to find investors for a new project, unfortunately to no avail. Isabell looks reality straight in the eye: David’s neanderthal-like behavior is no exception. Even in Cannes, there is no exception to the rule: men show their movies, women show their breasts!
This movie is an experiment with reality. In 2012 the “real” director Isabell Šuba transformed her invitation to the 65th Festival de Cannes into her latest filmproject. During the whole course of the festival she gave her identity to actress Anne Haug and accredited herself as film student Anne Woelky. “Men show movies and women their breasts” was shot in five days without any funding. It is supposed to point the way for equality of opportunities for men and women in the movie industry, for female role models which need to be established alongside men. But how is that supposed to work out when German funding goes almost always to male filmmakers? It’s time for change,, for new women à la Isabell Šuba: talented. self-confident, fierce.

German Mumblecore for the whole family… really? Robby (Tadeus Ranisch) screwed up. And because he is afraid of going home, he escapes head over heels into the woods.But there live some dark 'friends', who are just waiting for such a young desperate boy who gets lost in the woods! The Magician Stefan (Peter Trabner) wants to have Robby's childhood and the bad-tempered robber-chief (Heiko Pinkowski) sneaks through the woods with his machete. No wonder that Robby is soon in very big trouble…

Oliver Sechting lives with an obsessive compulsive disorder involving colors and numbers. His affliction ended up taking over his documentary HOW I LEARNED TO LOVE NUMBERS, which was originally meant to explore NYC's underground scene with co-director Max Taubert. Featuring interviews with directors Tom Tykwer, Ira Sachs and Jonathan Caouette. This doc-fiction film was shown at “achtung berlin” festival.
All day long, Berlin based director Oliver Sechting is tortured by certain combinations of numbers and certain colors. At worst, they cause serious panic attacks and even fear of death. In fact, Sechting and his fellow director Max Taubert came to New York City – with the blessing of their mentor Rosa von Praunheim – to film underground artists such as Phoebe Legere or Joey Arias. But Sechting's disorder becomes more and more predominant, causing him to withdraw from his filmmaking duties and stirring arguments with his co-director Taubert. In spite of all the difficulty, the film turns into a very personal and touching journey. Featuring interviews with directors Tom Tykwer, Ira Sachs or Jonathan Caouette.

The exciting world of drag Queens „Cybersissi“ and „BayBjane“ are at the center of the doc ONE ZERO ONE by Tim Lienhard. The story of friendship and victories over disability earned it the audience award at the Transcreen Film Festival Amsterdam, 2013.
This documentary fairytale accompanies 33 year-old Moroccan German Mourad and 48 year-old Dutchman Antoine, also known as the drag queens Cybersissi and BayBjane, two extraterrestrial ghosts, on and behind the stage of the international drag queen party circus. With extreme creativity and their well calculated freak appearance, they turn their shows into huge events. At only 4 ft 10 inches, Mourad owns the title of “shortest drag queen in the world” and, despite physical disabilities, has achieved larger than life performer status. He was helped by multitalented artist Antoine, an academic with a difficult family background. Furthermore, the film features the highly emotional music of Gustav Mahler as well as elaborately directed fantasy sequences.

For the last time, director Rosa von Praunheim films his friend, the fatally ill poet MARIO WIRZ as they take a walk. The two have an open and moving conversation about HIV, last things, about the power of love and positive thinking.
On April 16th, six weeks prior to his death, MARIO WIRZ allows his friend, Berlin director Rosa von Praunheim, to accompany him with his camera for a stroll. He has difficulty walking, but he exudes an optimism that overwhelms and charms von Praunheim. They talk about life and death and about whether or not to go public after having contracted AIDS.
“Together, we wrote poems in the spring sun. His last words in the film were: Let us live. On May 30th, he disappeared from this earth, aged 56. But poets have one great advantage: they are immortal.” - Rosa von Praunheim

NOSELAND is a mockumentary about the world of classical music. Musician Aleksey Igudesman films famous violinist Julian Rachlin – and his nose fetish – during a festival. The film was awarded the “Most entertaining documentary” prize at Doc Miami in 2012.
NOSELAND is the directing debut of multi talented violinist, composer and comedian Aleksey Igudesman. Together with the young Austrian filmmaker Sebastian Leitner, he has created a highly original, independent docu-mocku-feature combining humor with classical music, aiming at making classical music more popular with younger audiences. He therefore portrays classical musicians in a private, authentic and off-beat manner. The film features the world famous violinist Julian Rachlin and many other great classical musicians, as well as comical appearances by film stars John Malkovich and Sir Roger Moore.

This film is a self-experiment. In his doc SEARCHING FOR HEALERS OR I AM A HYPOCHONDRIAC, director Rosa von Praunheim experiments with alternative medicine and seeks out faith healers and shamans to cure his ailments and experience enlightenment.
The self-admitted hypochondriac and filmmaker Rosa von Praunheim is suffering from asthma and unbearable headaches and he searches for a cure through alternative means. In an introspective, yet extroverted and humorous manner, he explores the world beyond conventional medicine and documents his encounters with faith healers, shamans, humor therapists as well as with the monk Anselm Grün and the plant scientist Wolf-Dieter Storl.
“The abundant offer of alternative healing methods is fascinating. I decided – without judgment and in good faith – to believe everything and every one, because this is what distinguishes us from animals: the faith in gods, spirits and the life before and after life.” Rosa von Praunheim

KOHLHAAS OR THE PROPORTIONALITY OF MEANS by Aron Lehmann is a film within a film and a highly comical satire on the movie business. A very modern interpretation of a German literature classic, Heinrich von Kleist’s “Michael Kohlhaas”. This comedy played at achtung Berlin 2013 and won the German Actors Award for best ensemble. KOHLHAAS OR THE PROPORTIONALITY OF MEANS is a successful purveyor of the German Mumblecore Wave.
A low-budget production which has already earned cult status, KOHLHAAS tells of creativity, vanities, and the wonders - and pitfalls - of filmmaking. An outstanding cast, including Robert Gwisdek, Thorsten Merten, Heiko Pinkowski or Michael Fuith animate this comedy about a botched film shoot. The director (Robert Gwisdek) wants to film Heinrich von Kleist's classic novella and great battle epic "Michael Kohlhaas". But when the money dries up, half the crew flees. Fighting spirit and imagination turn oxen into horses, turn ruins into castles and transforms local villagers into actors ..."Such a wonderful homage to the world of movie making has rarely been seen!" (Märkische Oderzeitung)

LAURA – THE JEWEL OF STUTTGART is the portrait of a courageous woman, a fighter of homophobia and AIDS, by Berlin director Rosa von Praunheim. The film honors Laura Halding-Hoppenheit and was made in cooperation with the German Aids Foundation. For her work, Laura she was awarded the “PositHIV-Preis” prize and the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.
Not only in Stuttgart is Laura Halding-Hoppenheit a well-known personality, but in all of Germany because of her commitment to gay equal rights. During the AIDS crisis, Laura was there for her friends from the very beginning, gave financial support and fought against prejudice. Laura loves gays and gays love Laura. In Stuttgart, she was the owner oft three gay bars. To this day, she runs the Kings Club. For her work, she was awarded the “PositHIV-Preis” prize and the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. Laura, originally from Romania, still supports AIDS foundations and has become their showpiece in Germany.